Alfenus Varus was an ancient Roman jurist and writer who lived around the 1st century BC.

Life

Alfenus Varus (whose

praenomen The praenomen (; plural: praenomina) was a first name chosen by the parents of a Ancient Rome, Roman child. It was first bestowed on the ''dies lustricus'' (day of lustration), the eighth day after the birth of a girl, or the ninth day after the ...

might have been Publius) was a pupil of

Servius Sulpicius Rufus Servius Sulpicius Rufus (c. 105 BC – 43 BC), was a Roman orator and jurist. He was consul in 51 BC. Biography Early life He studied rhetoric with Cicero, accompanying him to Rhodes in 78 BC, though Sulpicius decided subsequently to pursue lega ...

, and the only pupil of Servius from whom there are any excerpts in the ''

Pandects The ''Digest'' (), also known as the Pandects (; , , "All-Containing"), was a compendium or digest of juristic writings on Roman law compiled by order of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I in 530–533 AD. It is divided into 50 books. The ''Dige ...

''. He composed 40 books of Digesta (‘Ordered Abstracts’), a title he was the first to employ. Of this work 70 excerpts survive in Justinian's compilation of the same name, the earliest coherent passages of legal writing to be preserved.Badian, E.; Honoré, T. (2000)
"Alfenus Varus, Publius"
''Who's Who in the Classical World''. Oxford. A story about him is preserved by the scholiast Helenius Acron, in his notes on the satires of

Horace Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 BC – 27 November 8 BC), Suetonius, Life of Horace commonly known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). Th ...

. The scholiast assumes the "Alfenus Vafer" of Horace to be the lawyer, and says that he was a native of

Cremona Cremona ( , , ; ; ) is a city and (municipality) in northern Italy, situated in Lombardy, on the left bank of the Po (river), Po river in the middle of the Po Valley. It is the capital of the province of Cremona and the seat of the local city a ...

, where he carried on the trade of a barber or a botcher of shoes, that he came to Rome to become a student of Servius, attained the dignity of

consulship The consuls were the highest elected public officials of the Roman Republic ( to 27 BC). Romans considered the consulship the second-highest level of the ''cursus honorum''an ascending sequence of public offices to which politicians aspire ...

, and was honored with a public funeral. It is believed that Alfenus Varus the jurist is the same as the "Varus" who is addressed in

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; 15 October 70 BC21 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Rome, ancient Roman poet of the Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Augustan period. He composed three of the most fa ...

's Eclogue 9 with a plea for him to save Virgil's home town of

Mantua Mantua ( ; ; Lombard language, Lombard and ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Italian region of Lombardy, and capital of the Province of Mantua, eponymous province. In 2016, Mantua was designated as the "Italian Capital of Culture". In 2 ...

from losing its land in the confiscations of 40 BC and promising to honour him with a poem if he succeeded. Another of Virgil's poems, Eclogue 6, is indeed addressed to Varus, but it is not known to what extent Varus was able to help Mantua.Wilkinson, L. P. (1966)
"Virgil and the Evictions"
''Hermes'', 94(H. 3), 320–324. It seems that Varus was the land commissioner appointed to distribute lands of northern Italy to veteran soldiers in 40 BC. A sentence of a speech by Cornelius Gallus survives criticising Varus for extending the confiscations almost up to the walls of Mantua despite having been ordered to leave a three-mile tract of land around the city. Virgil mentions Varus's military achievements (''Ec.'' 6.7) but politely passes the task of describing them to other poets. Varus was suffect consul in 39 BC. It is thought that the Publius Alfenus Varus who was consul in 2 AD may have been the jurist's son.

Works

There are 54 excerpts in the ''

'' from the 40 books of the ''Digesta'' of Alfenus; but it is conjectured that Alfenus may have acted only as the editor of the work of Servius. It appears from the fragments of Alfenus that he was acquainted with the

Greek language Greek (, ; , ) is an Indo-European languages, Indo-European language, constituting an independent Hellenic languages, Hellenic branch within the Indo-European language family. It is native to Greece, Cyprus, Italy (in Calabria and Salento), south ...

, and these fragments show that he wrote in a pure and perspicuous style. A passage that appears in the ''Pandects'' shows that he was not a stranger to the speculations of the philosophers. According to

Aulus Gellius Aulus Gellius (c. 125after 180 AD) was a Roman author and grammarian, who was probably born and certainly brought up in Rome. He was educated in Athens, after which he returned to Rome. He is famous for his ''Attic Nights'', a commonplace book, ...

, Alfenus was somewhat curious in matters of antiquity, and Gellius quotes a passage from the thirty-fourth book of his ''Digest'' in which Alfenus mentions one of the terms of a treaty between the Romans and the

Carthaginians The Punic people, usually known as the Carthaginians (and sometimes as Western Phoenicians), were a Semitic people, Semitic people who Phoenician settlement of North Africa, migrated from Phoenicia to the Western Mediterranean during the Iron ...

. Alfenus is often cited by later jurists. The fragments in the ''

'' are taken from the second to the seventh books of the ''Digest'' and there are fragments from the eighth book taken from the

epitome An epitome (; , from ἐπιτέμνειν ''epitemnein'' meaning "to cut short") is a summary or miniature form, or an instance that represents a larger reality, also used as a synonym for embodiment. Epitomacy represents "to the degree of." A ...

by the jurist Paulus. The entire number of books appears from the Florentine Index; the passage in Gellius quotes the thirty-fourth book; and a passage of Paulus cites the forty-ninth book. Whether the epitome of Paulus went further than the eighth book or not, is uncertain. The passage in Gellius: "''Alfenus ... in libro Digestorum trigesimo et quarto, Conjectaneorum autem secundo''," ("Alfenus says in the ''Digest'' and in the ''Conlectanea''") &c., has given rise to some discussion. It is clear that the passage in the ''Conlectanea'' is attributed to Alfenus, and it is also clear that only one passage is meant; or at most the same passage is referred to as being in two different works. But apparently only one work is meant, and therefore we must conclude that the ''Digesta'', which consisted of forty books, contained a subdivision called the ''Conlectanea''. Some critics have conjectured that the ''Conlectanea'' is the compilation of Aufidius Namusa, so that the passage cited by Gellius appeared in both the original work by Alfenus, and in the copious compilation of Namusa, which is made from Alfenus and other pupils of Servius.Zimmern, ''Geschichte des Röm. Privatrechts'' i. 295.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alfenus Varus 1st-century BC Roman consuls Varus Ancient Roman jurists Golden Age Latin writers Imperial Roman consuls Writers from Cremona

Life

Works

See also

References